Book Review'- "The Peculiar Institution" by Kenneth M. Stampp

I have always been curious as to how slavery worked from day to day in America and the non-fiction book "The Peculiar Institution" by Kenneth M. Stampp  supplies the answers. From the beginning slavery in America was driven by the profits it produced. Slave labor was obviously cheaper than paid labor so planters and other business owners took advantage of its legality at the time.

 There were of course many rationalizations that slave holders used to justify owning another human being. All of them have proved to be nonsense, but at the time some of the justifications for slavery were widely believed. 

 Although slavery was somewhat successful as a labor system, the author makes a good case that the cruelty of owning another human being was in the end more destructive to slave owners and to the South then any economic benefits from "The Peculiar Institution"